BC has 6 months to make changes to drunk driving laws

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The BC Supreme Court is giving the province until the end of June next year to make changes to drunk driving laws.  Earlier this month a judge ruled certain parts of the legislation violate people’s charter rights.

Thousands of people in the province want to be compensated after their cars were impounded immediately after they blew over the legal limit.

Attorney General Shirley Bond says she’ll introduce changes to the Motor Vehicle Act in the spring legislative session after government lawyers review the judgment.

Justice Critic Leonard Krog says they may have to scrap it if it can’t be fixed to be constitutional.

“Legislation like this where it faces a challenge in the court, judges will often give time to legislature or parliament to deal with the issue to see if it can be remedied.” But it’s an interesting question.. [can it]?”

Krog questions what they plan to do, “The opposition raised this as an issue, ‘would it pass constitutional muster?’ The court has declared that it doesn’t. It is going to be a difficult legal decision. It does place the whole thing in limbo.”

Court Justice Jon Sigurdson ruled the law violated drivers’ rights by imposing roadside penalties without giving the drivers a proper appeal process.

Bond says the government won’t give up its fight to remove impaired drivers from the road, pointing to figures that show the number of impaired driving deaths dropped by 45 over the last year compared to previous years.

Lawyers who challenged the law want all the penalties imposed under it reversed and the criminal records of the drivers wiped clean, while a lawyer for the government has asked Sigurdson to delay any action until the legislation is changed.

There is a class action lawsuit being filed on behalf of those slapped with immediate roadside licence suspensions and fines. The law firm behind the move says it’s not an action in defence of drunk driving.

Lawyer Diego Solimano with the Merchant Law Group says it’s an action to compensate those people who had their guilt wrongfully determined by a screening device.

“It’s comparable to a hospital determining a disease diagnosis based on a pin prick rather than a full blood sample.” he says.

Solimano says under this regime there were automatic penalties.

“People were made to pay approximately $4,000 and on top of that there was suspension of a person’s driver’s license for 90 days, impoundment of a person’s car for 30 days. That was followed by a year-long period of having to blow into an inter-lock device before starting you car,” he says.  

The class action lawsuit still needs certification, which they hope to get in the first of 2012.

He says they have a lot of people already, and are looking to get a lot more.  

For more information, go to www.merchantlaw.com.  

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